I once lived by so many horses, so many goats and unendangered bison. Eagles, bald eagles! Really! Right there by the river in the dead tree. I lived there too, right by the river, by the minor league field. I had the neighbor man sharpen the blades on the push mower. There wasn’t so much electric. We didn’t plow the streets. I don’t know how else to say it. My life was very small and beautiful. I was young though I didn’t know it. I was happy when the lilacs filled the alleyways in June. I got drunk, I got loved so many ways. I carried a knife. The brakes weren’t good but good enough. I traded needles, I cut stalks, I planted garlic, I taught school, I put a check in the mail with a stamp on it. I fell off my bike. I wore a bandana like a bandit for the smoke. When I danced, I spun around. I paid a buck to shake the dice. There were dogs everywhere. There were cattle. Coyotes. Owls. Bats. Sage. I used to live right beneath the stars. Right there, between the hills. There’s no other way to say it. I was so animal, I wrote poems, I was so young. I thought it would always be this way. I can still smell it. I can hear the crickets. And the coal train, how it howled like a song.